In March, one month after the Tokyo District Court sentenced Matsumoto to death, one of the five senior members told dozens of Aum followers gathered at its Kanto region facilities, “Our guru will continue to be in the center of us.”

The senior member also said: “Even if our guru is executed, he’ll only perish in body. His existence will still be absolute.”

Aum currently has about 650 live-in followers and about 1,000 lay followers. It has 26 facilities in Tokyo and 16 other prefectures.